Walked to New Canadians Lumber Centre again & back...Maybe 6 kilometres... On the way, stopped to buy several bottles of organic coconut water...Then I dropped two bottles off for Cosmo at La Parete Gallery...(I had ulterior motives)...I needed to know the name of the famous Canadian painter who he had featured on the wall in the great white Heron painting...Gordon Rayner...At the Gordon Rayner link I added, look for the image file for 1991...The Heron...Called "The Pilot"...In person it is way better... Also:http://www.judysigunick.com/1wallsculptures.html#If anyone is interested in a direct concrete/cement sculpting workshop please alert Judy Sigunick...(at the link)...(Just passing this on as it was just passed to me...)

Twitter people: https://twitter.com/#!/monsterNbox MonsterNBox is on a secret mission to become an artist...Help her along if you are the friendly mentoring type...You won't be sorry...

Walked with Joseph some more today...About 10 more kilometres at least...Walked by the Moore Gallery on Spadina...Did we go in? Nope...The gallery is up several flights of stairs in an older building that may or may not be cool on this again hot day...Couldn't convince Joseph to go...Reminder to self that showing in hot weather means people won't walk up stairs... (btw)Crabtree & Evelyn has some really nice scents/perfumes at a fraction of the price that others are charging... Still experimenting with coconut milk water, juices...All I know is that this stuff really hydrates well...

1)http://www.cbc.ca/programguide/program/q_with_jian_ghomeshi_ CBC radio with Jian Ghomeshi is on 99.1 starting at 10 am...Tomorrow morn(June 12) at 10 there is going to be a show all about SWANS! (yay!)2)Joseph & I walked from our home to Laird & Eglinton & back, which was over 13 kilometres...We got wristbands to mop up our sweat & I drank coconut water(from Sobey's, the brand in the can called "Grace" at $1.49, is good) to hydrate...(it was Hot)...Above the parking lot near the Home Depot we saw Hawks, first 2, then 5 or more...Hawks, falcons, not sure their name but huge wingspan & there were two young uns...beautiful...Joseph browsed for me at Winners(he is my personal shopper), while I sat outside & rested my feet on a bench in the sun... Lunch was delish at South Street grill there, yummy...

Picked up some Purina, urinary tract health, canned chicken entree, cat food, a case, from Petsmart & carried it home... Rained as we stumbled home...Passed D.E. Lake Gallery on the way...www.DeLake.com...(Note about D.E. Lake Gallery-In my walk as an artist I have had a few, very few, problems in the art world...When I have had a problem, I go to D.E. Lake gallery & they help me...They listen to me, they advise me, they console me & they send me out into the world...I have not ever given them any money nor have they asked...It is like going to church...Truly spiritual people...A truly spiritual place...'Nuff said...) Oh, we also passed by the Al Green Gallery on Merton street...Honestly could not figure out how to get in...Tried the gate...No...Tried a door on the right...No...I gave up as Joseph started to have that look...You know "C'mon! Hurry up"...Opportunity missed...Oh well...Another time...(Reasons to have easy to find doorways...)

2011-Ongoing: membership in Artist.Conspiracy, Art Business Coach, Alyson Stanfield (I have followed the ArtBizCoach though for years prior via ArtBizBlog.com)

2011 Bluffs Gallery, Scarborough (this gallery overlooks the Bluffs, which are cliffs on Lake Ontario- I think interesting locations are so much a part of the viewing experience)! Curator: a lady named Susan Dimitrakopolous

2005 Lanes Gallery, Hazelton Lanes (Lanes gallery had gorgeous Persian carpets & I had all their giant window space looking out from Hazelton lanes mall) Director: Bahman Fadaie-nia who had a deep knowledge of the art of carpetmaking & liked people alot

2004 Studio 99 Cafe & Gallery, Yorkville (Me & Joseph had all the walls here) Director: Warsame Boch who brought the flavours of Djibouti (& also some very good looking african-Canadian friends)

2001 Original Papers Art Gallery, Prince Arthur Street ( I had a big solo show here) Director: Tom Gottlieb who loved to eat & socialize (in the best way)

2000 ArtFocus Gallery, Toronto (Pat Fleisher who was an old pro in the art business,update: R.I.P.)

SARI GROVE...A BRIEF HISTORY

1999 The Redhead Gallery, Spadina (an artist run centre)(Grateful for the chance but didn’t like who I showed with)...

1998 Yorkville Fine Frame, Yorkville (Yorkville Fine Frame is in tony Yorkville on Bellair, it was a tremendous retail location, 2 different incarnations of owners newly from Korea)(Good Sales record here)

1994-1995 Studio 2007, Sherbourne Street (my first studio, which I loved & had 2 solo shows in & the bakery downstairs made it all smell good) Honestly, selling directly from your own studio & doing your own shows is so awesome...Maybe not as didactic though as having to deal with others...

1993 First sale of a work of art & so, became a “professional”... Educational Background:

University of Toronto Humber College Harvard University Ryerson PolytechnicalUniversity Atkinson College 1989 McGill University, Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) Sarah Lawrence College 1984 University of Toronto Schools (U.T.S.) High School Diploma 1979 The Toronto French School, lower school

Media, Books, etc.

Interviewed on a show called MediaTV on the CITYTV channel...(about computers & art-this was Before the internet!!!)

Interviewed on a local Toronto cable channel...(about chimpanzees rescued from aids testing facilities & making art)...

Published: The Talking Vegetable Garden, I did the illustrations for this book with Joseph’s help...

Giclees & other prints(I no longer do multiple prints): a long time ago I did 500 limited edition prints of an oil painting called Osmosis through Mahon Graphics in Markham...

Soon after that, a series of giclees prints through Altron Colour Imaging in New Brunswick(‘See Spot Run’ did the fine art photography for those)...

SARI GROVE...A BRIEF HISTORY

Artist Statement

I am writing this on June 11th, 2012...Right now I am covering an armature made of copper pipe & chicken wire with a homemade cultured marble mix...I picked up a big brown raccoon that had been hit by a car on mount pleasant road at crescent last year & that is why I chose to venerate him in sculpture form...please drive slow at night, that is when the raccoon families cross the streets...

Sari grove

& Collectors List:

i have decided that i am slightly uncomfortable publishing the list of my collectors...not only because some are very private people but because i am not sure it is good for me to tell others who all is buying...(smile)!(But I do have that list)...

My first attempts with cultured marble...I am still refining these two a bit...But WOW! This stuff is strong! (tried to put a screw in by hand to attach them...)

*Coconut Water: The potassium fixes joint pain & is good for stroke prevention or stroke recovery...The iron makes you feel strong & straightens out a confused mind...The magnesium cleans mercury from your gallbladder which fixes autism/ADHD/anger/violent personality traits, not to mention toenail & other funguses...It also hydrates like crazy & makes you poop...*Seaweed Crisps: For $1.99 you get a 3 pack from Shoppers Drug Mart...Each package contains a little tray with paper thin seaweed in a little sesame oil with sea salt...Not only is this a tremendous snack, but seaweed, the iodine in seaweed, cleans birth control pills & other excess progesterones out of your adrenal gland...It is birth control pills that cause cancer btw...So eating seawed is your easy cure for cancer...Warning: for beginner seaweed eaters I am told this is an acquired tastes...I love them, but they can be weird I am told...*End of favorite things is here...

Ok- what follows are NOT a few of my favorite things, but I stuck them in this blog post because they are sort of news or timely kind of stuff that should go here...Note: http://www.avaaz.org/en/sneak_attack_on_the_environment/?ctNxadb Prime Minister Harper is trying to sneak a bill through that will allow him to bypass environmental obstacles & push through oil pipelines that will screw up Canada's ecology...This is a link to a petition you can sign to stop this bad politic...

Art Movies: Just watched "Art Heist" 2004 with Ellen Pompeo & William Baldwin...I'm a fan of lower budget movies with story-Joseph & I call them "Stuart Bick Films" as a genre...Stuart Bick is a local actor who has appeared in many low budget plot driven suspense type thrillers, which also tend to feature slightly older but still hot, more famous female actors...Kind of like those easy to read books which were great for plane trips...Anyways, after watching Art Heist, I am reminded to refill my non-electric de-humidifier in my art storage area...I got mine from the camping section of Canadian Tire- it's just a container filter over a bowl really, & in the filter you put these crystals which naturally dehumidify...Totally cheap, totally works- you will be amazed when the bowl underneath fills up with a pond of water...In the movie, Ellen Pompeo's character looks for the dehumidifier, saying that no one would go to the trouble to steal an El Greco & then let it rot from humidity...If your oil paintings or sculptures aren't drying properly, get a non-electric dehumidifier...(the electric ones could start a fire so not my first choice)...Just make sure the thing is not around your cats, especially if your cats like to eat weird crystals... Also- made me consider getting temporary art show insurance again for the solo show at Agincourt Library...I am on the fence about art insurance- have used it before, but insurance companies scare me...Sometimes I think that telling a company where the valuables are & how much they are worth is not really a wise move...(Possibly a maybe not this time for me...)

* Next movie: Edvard Munch 1974: (will write about when I can)...Ok no...I didn't realize the film was 3 hours & 31 minutes long...with subtitles...I gave up...The fact that it begins with a consumption scene (coughing up blood) didn't help...Cut to the fact that people worked from 6 in the morn till 6 pm at night with one hour for lunch with pay at 15 crown per week was also too depressing as a start...No wonder Munch did the Scream...!

The Bee found a home in a garden...This sculpture represents the first really workable no-weld armature design that I was able to come up with...It also represents the last piece I did in my custom concrete mix before I decided to try to innovate into cultured marble mixes...The surface treatment was also new for me, the gold powder mixed with "milk" (a latex adhesive liquid that looks like milk), brushed gently into the the still wet cement...Under the gold is a more specific bee-like painted on series of markings, so as the gold fades, if it does, the purple markings will peer through, making the Bee look more Bee-like over time, instead of less... A quick recap of these processes:No-weld armature: Materials:10-24 threaded galvanized steel rods12-24 galv. steel bolts (I went up a size for ease of use)Aluminum screen mesh in blackCopper wireBolt cuttersStrong kitchen scissorsA flange from plumbing supply & a black steel 'nipple' also to fit into the flange

Custom Concrete Mix by Sari:Materials: 4 Parts white Portland cement2 parts aggregate: (within those two parts aggregate I put)* I part alkaline resistant 3/4 inch glass fibres * 1 part Aragonite sand(which is actually marble sand)Note: I dropped the white silica sand out of my mix because I like the stickiness of more marble...But white silica sand does add strength so you can add substitute some of that into your aggregate proportions if you want something stronger... -I also dropped the Perlite out of my aggregate mix...The Perlite is if you want your sculpture to be lighter in weight...But Perlite also increases fragility, which worried me...But I did use in the later stages of "Swanee" because the work was getting way too heavy for a human to lift...So for that it is indispensable...

Patina:Materials: I integrally mixed a purple colour mineral silicate paint for cement right into the custom concrete mix...I also painted some of this colour directly into the wet concrete in a stripey bee shaped pattern...On top of that, the final layer is gold powder mixed with Latex adhesive liquid (milk), brushed gently in with a high quality natural bristle shaving brush that was brand new out of the box(a used shaving brush is kind of gross)...

Safety:Materials: A good quality respirator for fumes...The kind that looks weird with the two canisters on either side & you look like an alien...A dust mask is NOT sufficient for this kind of work...Really...You will get headaches if you just use a dust mask...Use a respirator mask...It is worth it...Really...Really...Gloves...You need something thicker than surgical gloves...Surgical gloves will rip...Even dishwashing gloves are fine...

Extraneous: I use a cat litter box, those rectangular plastic things, to mix the concrete in...Bring a large container of water to have nearby so you don't run out while you are dirty & don't need to mess up your taps by refilling while dirty...Put your digital camera nearby so when you finish work for the day you can document what you did...There is not much online about technique so you can help others by teaching your discoveries...I wear Oakley clear lens shield frameless sunglasses as my safety glasses...Please wear glasses...You really need them as the cement will dry out your eyes...I have goggles too but they can fog up & they are a little constrictive with the respirator on too...When you finish work for the day, take all your clothes off & take a long bath & scrub & dip underwater, open your eyes, & let your eyes re-hydrate...I also use eyedrops in copious amounts after getting out of the bath- just a simple over the counter lube saline solution just to make sure my eyes are well lubricated...This will clean out particulate & make sure dryness is not a problem in the future...

Gosh...I love this little gallery...I love the owner...I go here all the time just to learn...The first time I went there was an abstract metal sculpture of wings by the cousin to the Benetton fashion guy...Awesome...Cosmo, the owner of La Parete, told me that it was cut out of the metal, not welded...Fascinating...I stared & looked for $10K in my pocket to buy it... Another visit & there was a giant painting with a swan(ok,update:I really think it was actually a white Heron waterbird not a swan, actually-in my mind I see a big white waterbird, but I realize it was a skinnier white bird, so a Heron, anyways, go see for yourself or ask!) on a nest by water by a famous Canadian artist(I had the name & now I forget, duh!)...Cosmo told me the artist had died recently...We both almost cried when he said that...It is a beautiful painting & later I looked online to see more examples...Again I looked for money to buy this piece... That afternoon someone came in to ask if a work was worth what another dealer was asking...Cosmo said no it was a fake, not an antique at all because the support was made of a brand new material that could not possibly have existed on the date the dealer had told the person...Customer left to return the work & I was thrilled & impressed at the wisdom of the advice... Another lady came in & she was obviously an art museum curator from somewhere important...This little gallery in a not-chic area with a not-chic decor was bringing in heavy hitters with huge knowledge... I think La Parete Gallery is the best kept secret in Toronto...Great art & a very healthy selection of great Canadian art & it is contemporary... The cronies who hang out there are fun too...They don't mind a talker (me) & they genuinely care about art, not just sales... Note: Bring them a decent coffee if you go...Someone brought giant coffee in paper cups from the Tim Horton's in the gas station & I was told it was the worst coffee they had ever tasted...(Of course, coffee from a gas station is really a gamble anyways)...(The giant cups were the subject of much laughter though...)

On my way to Canadian Lumber Centre, who are partners with Home Hardware, & who are the only ones who carry (well, special order), the Circa 1850 Marine powdered resin that I use to make my cultured marble with...Oh I am going to start a new sentence that last one was too long for coherence... Ok, so on my way for this very very long walk to pick up my order, I stopped in briefly to the new Navillus Gallery around the corner from where we live... This time, before I walked in, I made a decision to do the look see quickly, in case fumes were a problem... Good forethought, fumes were a problem... Ok, so very quickly in, "hello" & "hello back" & they "if you have any questions please ask" & I decided the two gallery girls were nice & pleasant & that is actually quite uncommon for gallery girls to be... One wall looked like Norman Rockwells'..."Are these Rockwells?" "Yes, they are"...The tiny printed card came into focus, Norman Rockwell...Mental note to make my cards huge so you don't have to stoop or squint to read them...(Afterthoughts: The Rockwells didn't "Feel" like Rockwells...They looked 'like' Rockwells...But I didn't feel them...This has left me wondering if Rockwells have been forged...Certainly it has been long enough & certainly printers can do a good job today...It wouldn't be the first time I saw forgeries in Toronto...Dalis get forged here too...I apologize for my insinuation here, but my spidey senses were alerted when I saw these...-which led me to look at everything else with heightened scrutiny & suspicion...) I saw works that were very spare abstracts with a gentle line or gesture through one side or the middle...I thought, Betty Goodwin, Helen Frankenthaler, Jack Bush...But no, it was not one of them , it was somebody I did not know who was doing work very reminiscent of someone else, but I couldn't put my finger on the person... Then again, some work that looked very much like Group of Seven work, very much...Again, a squint at the card & no, it was just someone I did not know working in that very close style... In the very back I got excited briefly thinking these were Cy Twomblys...But no...Someone else I had not heard of was doing a very nice version of a Cy Twombly... I left as fast as I entered for fear the fumes were going to muck up my lungs for the rest of the day...Mostly that glue quality, with some hard varnish & turpentine...I hate not being able to breathe after visiting an art gallery... Galleries should have water features & indoor gardens...Rock gardens at least with Zeolite rocks which remove smell...It is just so painful to think of these young girls sitting all day breathing that crap in... In terms of the aesthetics of this gallery? My gut tells me that people who come from the movie business are going to like art that "looks" good but is not necessarily original in terms of the artist having a fingerprint style that is not a copy or knockoff...Art in movies is known to be knockoffs...A cheaper look-alike that can get beaten up on the set & is not subject to royalty fees or insurance costs...The art in this gallery looks pretty good from a distance...The distance a camera might afford...But up close it leaves me yearning for authenticity...

" It's not that I can't cross the streets myself...It's the cars..." Toronto City Council has been handing out Bylaw Density Amendments to ridiculously tall building developers (ed. note: 'developers of ridiculously tall buildings' might be better grammatically...) ...Like candy... Well, see Section 37 says that City Council gets a 30% kickback...30% of the Expected Profit on the tall new building, if the gov't just says yes to looking the other way when it comes to ecology & the environment & sanity & just all that is good & noble in the world... The last time they said yes & I got a look at the numbers, it said $337,000 of Section 37 bribe money was going to parks in our neighborhood... What did we get? Well some sort of designer put up some fences & in another park some cement rocks to sit on...A designer looking playground went up... Hmmm...The problem is that square footage was not increased...The parks are getting smaller & now they just have more furniture & walls... So the people with dogs huddle in the fenced off areas & come home smelling, like, well, pooh, because density increases mean more tall buildings than an area can handle...Pooh-wise... It's a scam...Our Canadian gov't right now is as phony as, as phony as, as phony as a Canadian gov't... We'd been good for so long, we got complacent...Everyone knows Canadians are good...Right? But now they, we, are not...We, they, are corrupt... So Robert who is blind needs to wait for help crossing the streets...Because density now means there are way too many cars moving way too fast & they don't see his cane & think he can jump out of the way like the pigeons & the raccoons & the squirrels who try...

If you see a person with a white cane, help them across the street...Show them where their pharmacy is...Wait while their prescription is filled...Walk them back... It's the least we can do while we stuff real estate gain money into our back pockets because we sold out to the foreign speculative monies who have psychosis when it comes to eco-friendly urban planning...